The Hitchhiker
by Elisa Ardell
Summary: Ratchet learns another new and irritating thing about humans thanks to Rafael's help.


**The Hitchhiker**

Driving.

Never before did it mean so much as it did here. Once it was just a way for transportation. Now it was a way to blend in undetected. Thankfully due to the sheer emptiness of the roads that surrounded them running into others was not common. Which was how he liked it. Ratchet was one who liked quiet so he could think and mull over things properly. Even if he was warming up to the little squishy beings at their base some could be more... 'bothering' than others. He hated to leave since he couldn't work on what he wanted to but sometimes, just driving along an empty stretch of road was what one needed.

Today had something different. His driving had lead him at least an hour away from Jasper when the road presented him with a strange sight. He continued to drive along watching the sight curiously. What was that strange human doing? Why was her hand like that? Was it broken? Was she giving him the thing humans called 'a thumbs up'? This was all very strange and disconcerting. Humans had the strangest customs.

He drove past not even slowing.

"What the _fuck_? _REALLY_? _**REALLY**_?" Casey slumped and put a hand on her bent knee. Shit it was hot. She should have just stuck to the pervert who's car she had been in instead of pissing him off and getting kicked. She looked at the speeding away ambulance and grit her teeth. "BETTER BE A FUCKING EMERGENCY!" She yelled. Not like it had it's lights on. Maybe it didn't stop because she didn't look like she could pay anything to anyone. She ran her free arm across her brow it becoming slick with sweat. "Shit..." She stared at the dry ground, drops of sweat and frustrated tears being absorbed by the arid ground immediately. "GOD DAMN IT!" She screamed before she straightened and began to walk again. Roads eventually lead somewhere, hopefully wherever this one lead would be a place where ambulance drivers weren't jackasses.

* * *

><p>Ratchet eventually got back to base, the evening having begun to roll in. He looked around. Aaaah... only Raf was here, though it looked like Jack and Miko were out somewhere with Arcee and Bulkhead. Only due to them no longer being around and having been when he'd left. Hopefully the two were being dropped off somewhere and would never to return.<p>

"Welcome back Ratchet." Came Raf's young voice. "You have fun getting away?"

Ratchet snorted. "Yes I had 'fun'." He said as he began to get right to work. Hm. "Tell me Rafael, why do humans have so many odd mannerisms?"

"Ah." Raf though. "Well their not odd to us?" He said with a smile. "What sort of mannerism are you talking about?"

"Oh ah." It COULDN'T have been a distressed thing. The person Hardly looked distressed. "Someone gave me a thumbs up as I drove by."

Raf frowned. "A Thumb- OH! The person was at the side of the road right?"

"That actually Means something?" he asked. "What sort of person stands at the side of the road and does that?"

"A hitchhiker." The boy said easily.

"What sort of ridiculous thing is a 'hitchhiker'?" Ratchet asked with an amused tone. Hitch Hiker? What a freakish sounding thing. He swore humans just TOOK perfectly good words and mangled them together for their own amusement. He knew what a 'hitch' was. And a Hiker. Someone standing at the side of the road was neither!

"A Hitchhiker is someone who is trying to travel without aid of their own vehicle. They can be runaways or people just trying to get from one place to another. If all goes good though people can change various cars along their trek and meet all sorts of cool people. Some pitch in money for gas in thanks to their transportation or the people who are helping them are generous enough to not ask for payment."

Ratchet looked at the little boy. "You mean to tell me that this is an acceptable way to travel?" He let out a small bark of laughter. "Sounds like a '_WONDERFUL_' way to travel."

"It's done but everyone hopefully knows it's not safe." Raf said a little quietly. "There's a lot of people every year who leave their homes without warning and they're never seen again. People say it's probably due to them being picked up by someone who ended up being dangerous. Once you're in a car though, not everyone knows what to do to get away."

"Do you know?" Ratchet asked with a quirked brow. The boy was such a smarty pants he was expecting a whole novel worth of words about the subject.

The silence the boy had as he fiddled with his glasses assured that the conversation had just taken a rather dark and grim turn.

"I know not to get into a strangers car." Raf said. "Momma has a password system with us and I have a cell phone so she would always call if someone else was coming to get me. Nowadays though I just ride with Bee."

"Yes. I am _all_ too aware of that."

Raf smiled a little at the others unimpressed tone. "So you saw a hitchhiker. Since you're asking what they were doing I guess you didn't stop?"

"What? Of course not! I'm not a taxi!"

"Would you have stopped if you had been?"

He sputtered. "I did not know what the thumbs up thing meant!" He was NOT in the wrong! "It could have been diseased or something!"

"I don't think I have to point out the irony of you avoiding someone because they might be diseased."

"I-I couldn't- I Don't have to explain myself! It was a weird human and what would I do with it if it was sick? Drive it to the hospital?"

"Could take them somewhere and contact Jack's mom."

"AND oh so wisdom filled child, what would I do if I did pick it up and it wasn't sick? I'm not planning on driving it anywhere. It was heading out and away from the city. So driving it back to town would probably not be in it's list of things to do!"

Raf winced a smile. "Right. Guess you did the right thing then."

"EXACTLY!"

Raf let Ratchet get back to work. He looked around and smiled as he saw Bee, rushing off to go play with his friend and leaving the unhappy Ratchet to mutter to himself about 'stupidly complicated humans'.


End file.
